Sediment chemistry of urban stormwater ponds and controls on denitrification

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dc.contributor.authorBlaszczak, Joanna R.en
dc.contributor.authorSteele, Meredith K.en
dc.contributor.authorBadgley, Brian D.en
dc.contributor.authorHeffernan, James B.en
dc.contributor.authorHobbie, Sarah E.en
dc.contributor.authorMorse, Jennifer L.en
dc.contributor.authorRivers, Erin N.en
dc.contributor.authorHall, Sharon J.en
dc.contributor.authorNeill, Christopheren
dc.contributor.authorPataki, Diane E.en
dc.contributor.authorGroffman, Peter M.en
dc.contributor.authorBernhardt, Emily S.en
dc.contributor.departmentSchool of Plant and Environmental Sciencesen
dc.date.accessioned2019-05-03T18:52:42Zen
dc.date.available2019-05-03T18:52:42Zen
dc.date.issued2018-06en
dc.description.abstractStormwater ponds and retention basins are ubiquitous features throughout urban landscapes. These ponds are potentially important control points for nitrogen (N) removal from surface water bodies via denitrification. However, there are possible trade-offs to this water quality benefit if high N and contaminant concentrations in stormwater pond sediments decrease the complete reduction of nitrous oxide (N2O), a potent greenhouse gas, to dinitrogen (N-2) during denitrification. This may occur through decreasing the abundance or efficiency of denitrifiers capable of producing the N2O reductase enzyme. We predicted that ponds draining increasingly urbanized landscapes would have higher N and metal concentrations in their sediments, and thereby greater N2O yields. We measured potential denitrification rates, N2O reductase (nosZ) gene frequencies, as well as sediment and pore water chemistry in 64 ponds distributed across eight U.S. cities. We found almost no correlation between the proportion of urban land cover surrounding ponds and the nutrient and contaminant concentrations in the stormwater pond sediments within or across all cities. Regression analysis revealed that the proportion of potential N-2 and N2O production that could be explained was under different environmental controls. Our survey raises many new questions about why N fluxes and transformations vary so widely both within and across urban environments, but also allays the concern that elevated metal concentrations in urban stormwater ponds will increase N2O emissions. Urban stormwater ponds are unlikely to be a problematic source of N2O to the atmosphere, no matter their denitrification potential.en
dc.description.notesThank you to Ethan Baruch, Anika Bratt, Dan Dillon, Jacques Finlay, Victoria Green, Jennifer Learned, Tara Trammell, and Megan Wheeler for providing the resources for and/or assistance with field work. Thanks to Brooke Hassett and Brynn O'Donnell for assistance with sample processing at Duke. At Virginia Tech, thanks to Julie Burger, Jinshi Jian, and Lucas Waller for assistance with sample processing and Jefferey Parks for ICP-MS analysis. Thank you to Dean Urban, Marie Simonin, the Bernhardt lab group, and the Duke River Center for helpful feedback on ideas and early drafts of the manuscript. This research was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation's Macrosystems Biology program (NSF EF-1065785) and by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF GDE-1644868). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.en
dc.description.sponsorshipNational Science Foundation's Macrosystems Biology program [NSF EF-1065785]en
dc.description.sponsorshipNational Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship [NSF GDE-1644868]en
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.2318en
dc.identifier.eissn2150-8925en
dc.identifier.issue6en
dc.identifier.othere02318en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/89356en
dc.identifier.volume9en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherEcological Society of Americaen
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 Internationalen
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/en
dc.subjectcontaminantsen
dc.subjectdenitrificationen
dc.subjectmetalsen
dc.subjectNitrogenen
dc.subjectnitrous oxideen
dc.subjectnitrous oxide reductaseen
dc.subjectstormwater pondsen
dc.subjecturban biogeochemistryen
dc.titleSediment chemistry of urban stormwater ponds and controls on denitrificationen
dc.title.serialEcosphereen
dc.typeArticle - Refereeden
dc.type.dcmitypeTexten

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Destination Area: Global Systems Science (GSS)